Who said "Move the Tabernacle"
I was talking to a young friend recently and he remarked on the position of the Tabernacle. I asked him "Who gave permission for the Tabernacles to be removed from the centre of the Altar" He replied "The Church" I told him "Wrong"
I was in a position to do so because I had lived through what was called the "Spirit of Vatican II". I witnessed the deceit and dishonesty practiced on the people with regard to the Blessed Sacrament. It all began when the Bishops of England allowed scholars or 'experts' from universities to teach us Church History and they appeared in many Diocese with the permission of these bishops to tell us that actually Adoration and Worship of that Sacrament had begun in the 11th century and somehow went beyond the beliefs of the Early Church. Well they were experts. The next move was for many priests to call into question the Real Presence. I remember in a parish magazine I wrote in defence of the substantial presence of Jesus in the Sacrament. It could have been left at that but I think the priest was persuaded not to let me have the last word and I received reply with a strange reply that there was no such thing as substance and the passage I had quoted from Paul VI in which he said 'in order to conform with Catholic Belief any teaching on the Real Presence must assert that when the words of Consecration are spoken no element of bread remains in the host and no element of wine remains in the wine, they are totally changed". This was a purer teaching. I honestly did not see the point of this but assumed that this was an attack on the teaching of St Thomas Aqinas which although it did not contradict the saint it certainly obscured in some way the teaching.
The next dismissal of the Blessed Sacrament came with the Holy Communion programmes. I was involved since one of my sons was making this . Asking why there was no mention of Jesus in the Host or Adoration of Jesus proposed I was told that the children were too young to understand. Now thousands of children had gone through First Holy Communion programmes as indeed I had as a child. I accepted that Jesus was in the Host with no difficulty as did the other children with me. It presented no problem. And this excuse was so feeble. If there is anyone who as an adult now understands the Real Presence and can explain it to me I would like to hear from you. The whole point of the Blessed Sacrament is that it is Faith in Jesus without understanding. But worse was to follow. I went along to a Saturday morning event to the local school where a brand new Education programme was being introduced and of course it was my first experience of a mock consultation which was to flourish thereafter. I brought to the attention of the audience that there was no mention of the Sacraments in the programme and if the children were not taught about the presence of Jesus in our churches they would lose their faith. Of course I was labelled divisive by this time and probably some laughed, so they ignored me and the children lost their faith.
Of course with the Real Presence being denied or just a thing of no importance the next move was to move Jesus from the altar so that his presence was brought to a minimum and kneeling would be stamped out. Many priests went so far as moving him into another room, maybe that helped them ignore his teachings from the pulpit, others under pressure from their bishop and other clergy put him reverently in a side chapel but others just put him in a box on the wall which they called a safe. The idea that the Church was a house of prayer was very much under attack. I did speak up in my own parish when plans were announced to remove Jesus. We had a wonderful Rosary group which prayed very deeply for this not to happen. Somehow we were spared. The neighbouring parish was not so lucky. A new Church was being built and it was proposed that the Tabernacle be removed to another room. This was very much disapproved of by those present. But someone said "The presence of the Tabernacle on the Altar is no longer approved of by the Church" The only mention of removing the Tabernacle was in a document which dealt with Cathedrals and places of pilgrimage where it could be moved to a separate altar. There is not document in existence that said this about parish churches. Let us just say the the result was that the Blessed Sacrament was put in 'another kind of Tabernacle' and all the chairs were turned away from it. When the new Church opened there were no kneelers for the congregation. The congregation started making kneelers and subsequent priests turned the chairs around so that people could sit or kneel to adore. In case anyone accuses me of overstating this when I visited my Cathedral and went to the side Altar where the Tabernacle was reserved there were no chairs to sit on, no kneelers to kneel on, and there was only the stone cold floor which only young men could kneel on and certainly stopped women from kneeling before their God.
I make no apologies for writing this since the Blessed Sacrament is one of the greatest gifts God has given to his Church. When I kneel before the Blessed Sacrament I am constantly reminded of the silent prayer the priest says when he is pouring water into the wine "By the mingling of this water and wine may we share in the Divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our Humanity" The Son of God became human and is proud to remain human in the wonderful presence in our Churches and Tabernacles.
I was in a position to do so because I had lived through what was called the "Spirit of Vatican II". I witnessed the deceit and dishonesty practiced on the people with regard to the Blessed Sacrament. It all began when the Bishops of England allowed scholars or 'experts' from universities to teach us Church History and they appeared in many Diocese with the permission of these bishops to tell us that actually Adoration and Worship of that Sacrament had begun in the 11th century and somehow went beyond the beliefs of the Early Church. Well they were experts. The next move was for many priests to call into question the Real Presence. I remember in a parish magazine I wrote in defence of the substantial presence of Jesus in the Sacrament. It could have been left at that but I think the priest was persuaded not to let me have the last word and I received reply with a strange reply that there was no such thing as substance and the passage I had quoted from Paul VI in which he said 'in order to conform with Catholic Belief any teaching on the Real Presence must assert that when the words of Consecration are spoken no element of bread remains in the host and no element of wine remains in the wine, they are totally changed". This was a purer teaching. I honestly did not see the point of this but assumed that this was an attack on the teaching of St Thomas Aqinas which although it did not contradict the saint it certainly obscured in some way the teaching.
The next dismissal of the Blessed Sacrament came with the Holy Communion programmes. I was involved since one of my sons was making this . Asking why there was no mention of Jesus in the Host or Adoration of Jesus proposed I was told that the children were too young to understand. Now thousands of children had gone through First Holy Communion programmes as indeed I had as a child. I accepted that Jesus was in the Host with no difficulty as did the other children with me. It presented no problem. And this excuse was so feeble. If there is anyone who as an adult now understands the Real Presence and can explain it to me I would like to hear from you. The whole point of the Blessed Sacrament is that it is Faith in Jesus without understanding. But worse was to follow. I went along to a Saturday morning event to the local school where a brand new Education programme was being introduced and of course it was my first experience of a mock consultation which was to flourish thereafter. I brought to the attention of the audience that there was no mention of the Sacraments in the programme and if the children were not taught about the presence of Jesus in our churches they would lose their faith. Of course I was labelled divisive by this time and probably some laughed, so they ignored me and the children lost their faith.
Of course with the Real Presence being denied or just a thing of no importance the next move was to move Jesus from the altar so that his presence was brought to a minimum and kneeling would be stamped out. Many priests went so far as moving him into another room, maybe that helped them ignore his teachings from the pulpit, others under pressure from their bishop and other clergy put him reverently in a side chapel but others just put him in a box on the wall which they called a safe. The idea that the Church was a house of prayer was very much under attack. I did speak up in my own parish when plans were announced to remove Jesus. We had a wonderful Rosary group which prayed very deeply for this not to happen. Somehow we were spared. The neighbouring parish was not so lucky. A new Church was being built and it was proposed that the Tabernacle be removed to another room. This was very much disapproved of by those present. But someone said "The presence of the Tabernacle on the Altar is no longer approved of by the Church" The only mention of removing the Tabernacle was in a document which dealt with Cathedrals and places of pilgrimage where it could be moved to a separate altar. There is not document in existence that said this about parish churches. Let us just say the the result was that the Blessed Sacrament was put in 'another kind of Tabernacle' and all the chairs were turned away from it. When the new Church opened there were no kneelers for the congregation. The congregation started making kneelers and subsequent priests turned the chairs around so that people could sit or kneel to adore. In case anyone accuses me of overstating this when I visited my Cathedral and went to the side Altar where the Tabernacle was reserved there were no chairs to sit on, no kneelers to kneel on, and there was only the stone cold floor which only young men could kneel on and certainly stopped women from kneeling before their God.
I make no apologies for writing this since the Blessed Sacrament is one of the greatest gifts God has given to his Church. When I kneel before the Blessed Sacrament I am constantly reminded of the silent prayer the priest says when he is pouring water into the wine "By the mingling of this water and wine may we share in the Divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our Humanity" The Son of God became human and is proud to remain human in the wonderful presence in our Churches and Tabernacles.
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